Daydreams I was referring to before I gave up when I had sakary of 45k and dh sakary of 26k and we saved 1k monthly so 71k minus 12k which is 59000 a year before tax to love off. I akso pay a fortune into my pension and my spouse and child pension.

op didn't ask what a decent wage for a solicitor or a doctor. the question was what's a decent wage. if the answer had a qualifying reason such as in dublin its x amount cause of rental/mortgage then fair enough but adding outgoings which are choice like a high level health insurance and private pension and stating those as necessity and hence 100k isnt much is a little above the original question posed. yes I could probably spenda wage of 100k easily if I had it and would be great to have a pension and a decent health insurance but imo its an extra - yes I fight with dp every year over keeping our health insurance and see it asvery important but its still an extra

dawntime once you live within your means all is good yes completely agree. I don't begrudge good wages or big houses - my parents have both btw and I wish I could earn as much as my dad as he has been wonderful for all of us. I am one lucky person who grewup with money and many chances. I'm just saying that the op asked what is a decent wage. imo I think its sad that dp, who earns 38k before tax is not on a decent wage (below fis levels for family of 5 and yes things can be tight). things are so expensive. yes I'm currently at home (still looking though) and yes there are alot of variables but if 100k is only a decent wage whats a good wage/well off?

sparkling the only thing is that one family could say they are finding it hard financially living in a massive house in an expensive area woth great services while having a great health insurance and driving expensive cars and on what on paper looks like a great wage while another say they are fine on low wages, were careful about the house they bought, have little or no health insurance, have no private pension, are careful about their spending and see savings as money they can use if need be. we all have different priorities. I stillthink fis is close to it although that's very low if youhhave a massive mortgage. it is a very hard question really.

Sorry MaryB I thiught that was probably the case after I posted! FIS is a great system I have to say.

Honestly we did live v comfortably on 70k and we have 2 in nappies 1 on formula. Our mortgage is about 1200 our shopping is about 500-600 monthly we had no loans my commute was 40 mins dh only 5. We paid childcare and we made ourselves save 1k a month deducted from our salaries and still had money to live on. Kids dance swim play football and do other little things here and there that they don't stick at. We spend money on clothes when needs be a d have trips and weekends away and days out. If u deduct what we saved it was really more like 58k we were living on.

Similar to others here over 100k but paying thru the nose for everything including 2 kids in college, one has small part time job but it's still costing us over 10k a year for the 2 of them and Loosing Child benefit for 3rd soon. 2 cars both over 13 years old, can't really afford anything to go wrong with them anymore. Worked and slogged hard for many years to get to that salary scale, 12hour days, etc. So from 120k, almost 50k in tax deductions, 10k for colleges, it's leaving net of 40k which still had to pay mortgage, bills, feed 5 adults, etc. It's not poor but it's not rich either.

I do have a good understanding of the tax system so am well aware of how much those on higher incomes can pay in taxes. Please do not imply that i don't. I am referring to people thinking that FIS is another handout to people sitting on their bums. I also have to run a house, car as well as taking care of my children. There isno proper provisions for childcare in this country. Its not easy for anyone

Threads like this make me very sad. I am a single parent working in the health sector and do not earn very much so am entitled to FIS. Hearing the awful judgemental comments from some of you is not nice. I work hard and I do manage on the income I have. I drive a crock. We rarely have hols, I don't smoke, drink or go out very often. Shame on all of you who look down their noses at the likes of me.

Yes Dawntime is right, dh pays a fortune in tax,prsi,usc,pension contributions and benefit in kind because his employer pays our VHI.As i said already his pay slip is like a shopping list with the amount of deductions. Just because you earn a good wage doesn't mean your loaded.

Gosh.. Apologies for that mistake. Should have got my facts right. A friend had pointed out they only paid the lower rate of USC .. She was not sure if it was because of FIS or medical card entitlement.

We are a family of six and I do not work. My husband recently got a long overdue 3 % pay rise. So his payslip comes in April and he is disgusted to realise he is €1.24 better off a month.

Really got me thinking that once you reach a certain income level, there is often little financial gain from earning any extra. My husband works ridiculous hours and will probably be burned out by the time he is fifty but he stays going coz we have no choice.

Cant help wondering sometimes if we earned about ten or fifteen thousand euros less, we would be entitled to FIS and possible college grants in years to come. Can the government not see this ?

The tax system in this country is really dismal as it in no way rewards productivity and hard work. People study for years and years, get great qualifications and get rewarded by paying ridiculously high USC rates. Why is it that people that get FIS because they have four or five children pay the low rate of USC.

Hopefully the next budget will address some of these inequalities as very disillusioning for so many people. I should add we are luckier than a lot of posters here as we do not have a big mortgage and have no childcare.

Bamba I meant 70 k as a single income I would consider very good. When j was earning 45k dh was on about 10k less than now so combined about 70k and we had plenty of money we didn't have to watch what we were spending at all and saved 1000 a month without noticing it gone. We are a family of 6.

We are now living on just 600-650 weekly and it's fine. No luxuries but don't have to stress.

Wheb I return to work we will have hopefully close to 80k combined and to me that's a huge amount.

I can't believe how many people are brushing off 100k as feck all! I'm no good at maths but that must be about 1500 weekly which is ample for any family size and it if u can't live very comfortably on that then something is very wrong

Last year we earned about 40K combined. DH is self employed and busy all the time (thankfully) and I work 2.5 days. We have 3 kids, 2 school going, 1 who needs full time minding and another in the oven. Our 2 DS's go to afterschool at an approximate cost of e50 per week. DD is minded between 2 grannies for another e50 - yes we are very lucky to have help from families. We have mortgage which is okay as our house isn't that big and we have tracker. Would love a bigger house but not willing to bring more debt on us at present. We have 2 cars, the boys do swimming, soccer and hurling and are happy as. We want for nothing and are happy with our lot. We get for days out, have a holiday every year (be it here or abroad) and pay all our bills. When I read the first few threads, I felt like a pauper but reading on, I realise there are plenty similar and worse off than us that manage just fine.

Dh earns 110-120k and i earn 10k a year. With a mortgage, 4 kids,bills and the usual living costs it can be very easily spent. As the kids are getting older they are becoming more expensive and with all the deductions from dh's wages his playslip looks more like a shopping list. So just because you earn if doesn't mean you get to take home a lot of it.

lsmum, that's good wage 38 grand. Yes taxes v high here. We manage here as no childcare costs at the moment and one is secondary now thank god. I been on mid 20s office wages and that is quite low really.

I didn't care about people earning loads until the comment about spongers and people in receipt of family income support having no dignity - you can only apply for fis if you are working. daydream when I was working in 2008 earning 38000 a year I net 3300 a month. last week I.put the 38k into the tax calc and came with 2700 or something a month. thats a dramatic fall - when were you a sahp?